It's better out West.
Adventures from our home in Colorado Springs and our cabin in the mountains. Gardening, prepping, dog wrangling, ranting, etc. I can't promise anything here is useful but it's our way-back machine.
You just might find some nice photo's, recipes, and ideas.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Cheesecake recipe and hello Fall!

The house hasn't been above 68 since we returned from Europe, and we've been keeping the windows closed at night. I don't want to add more blankets or turn on the heat, it's still September.
There was snow on the mountains this morning and we got an inch of rain last night, the creek is still a small river but it does sound wonderful.
Fall is my favorite time of year, the cool weather is great for running and getting all kinds of projects done before the snow falls.

Since it was the first day of fall it called for some chili:

It was also time for zucchini bread:

The chili was just right, a little bit of heat spreading around your body as you enjoy it. The last batch we made in the spring was so hot it ended up getting tossed out after 1 bowl each. I'm from NH, I'm not a huge fan of flaming hot food. Serrano peppers with the seeds removed and then diced up... hard to beat.

Someone asked for my Pina Colada cheesecake recipe, so here it is:
Large spring form pan
Crust: 1.5C graham cracker crust, 1/4C sugar, 1/2C butter, 1/2C shredded coconut
Note: I like a thick crust and I like a good side crust, so I double the above amount and mix it together. The coconut amount is a guess, I use a handful.

350 Degrees for 90 minutes until it's browning on the top. This cheesecake is wet, so it will never seem cooked in the middle of you test it any other way than the top starts to brown and/or you jiggle it and it doesn't move around too much in the middle. It's wet and it's a little messy when you try to dish it out but it's awesome to eat.

Caution: Make sure you wrap your spring form bottom and sides (outer) with foil or it makes a mess in the oven. The coconut in the crust releases oil and it will (yes, it will) drip out of the spring pan edges. I once used a baking sheet under the pan but it still smoked a lot when the oil dripped out. Nothing has been better than foil, if you don't have really wide sheets of foil, make a large sheet out of 2 smaller ones but make sure you fold over where the 2 sheets meek so it's continuous.

Coconut cream topping: 2C heavy cream, 2t vanilla, 1/4C cream of coconut (all guesses, your taste will tell you when it's good).
Note: You can just make whipped topping and add the cream of coconut. This cream is usually found by the margarita mix in the grocery store. It's usually in a tubular can, drop the entire can in hot water for a while so it all becomes liquid again before you open it up. If you don't, it's sort of an oil/cream glob and is hard to mix into the whipped cream.

With the goofy weather we might have an early winter, and possibly a hard one. I wouldn't mind a few more weeks before it hits but I'm keeping an eye on the weather in case I need to cover the tomato and cucumber plants. Everything else is about done producing.

OOwwww, looks fabulous Max. Chili sounds wonderful, may have to make that this weekend, since I have not had to do the backstroke.I have one more batch of salsa to do and I am done. Glad as I am tired, but I am happy of what I have put away.Take care, and thanks for the support from our flooding.